Doors are related to windows but they are not the same job. A door gets used every day, carries its weight on hinges or rollers, and has to seal along a threshold that people walk across. That combination is why doors fail in their own particular ways: a slider that takes two hands to move, a threshold that lets water or air through, weatherstripping that has gone flat and no longer touches, or a slab that has shifted enough that the latch does not line up with the strike.
Because a door carries hardware and traffic loads, installation tolerances are tighter than on a window. A door hung slightly out of square will drag, seal unevenly, or swing open on its own. If your current door has been rubbing since the day it went in, that is worth saying out loud during the estimate, since it tells the contractor what to look at in the opening before a new one goes in the same place.
Door pricing follows the same logic as windows. Replacing hardware and weatherstripping is the smallest scope. Setting a new slab into a sound existing frame is bigger. Replacing the whole unit, frame and sill included, is bigger still, and it is the only version that lets the crew see what is behind the jamb. Size drives cost, so a wide slider or a French pair costs more than a standard entry door. Sidelights and transoms add to it. And if the threshold has been leaking long enough to reach the subfloor, that repair gets discovered when the old unit comes out, not before.
Not necessarily. Hard sliding is often rollers that are worn or a track that is packed with dirt and grit, and both can be addressed without replacing the door. Replacement makes more sense when the panel itself is damaged, when the glass unit has failed, or when the frame has moved enough that the door no longer seals along its full height.
Sometimes, if the frame is square, solid, and free of water damage. It is the door equivalent of an insert window. The catch is the same too: you inherit whatever is wrong with the existing frame, and if the threshold has been leaking, a new slab hides the problem instead of fixing it. Have someone check the sill before choosing that route.
Contractors often handle both, and doing them in the same visit can make sense for scheduling. Treat them as separate line items though. Doors have their own threshold detail, their own weatherstripping, and their own hardware adjustments, and you want that work described in the quote rather than folded into a window count.
Usually one of three things. The weatherstripping has compressed and no longer makes contact, the door has shifted so it seals on one edge but not the other, or the gap between the frame and the framing was never insulated properly. The first two are adjustments. The third only gets fixed by opening the trim and dealing with the gap.
Old windows swapped for new ones, either full-frame down to the rough opening or as an insert inside the existing frame. We help you figure out which one your house actually needs before anyone quotes a number.
Learn more →Haze or fog trapped between the panes means the seal on that unit has failed, and no amount of cleaning brings it back. Sometimes the glass can be replaced on its own, and sometimes the whole window is the better call.
Learn more →Finished basement bedrooms have to meet code for the size of the opening and the well outside it. If yours was flagged during a sale or an inspection, this is the work that corrects it, well and drainage included.
Learn more →A sash that will not stay up, a crank that spins, a window painted shut. These are usually hardware or balance problems, not a reason to replace the whole unit. Worth checking before you buy anything.
Learn more →A few quick questions, then we match you with a contractor who works on Utah homes.